#3. Create Leaderboards for Multiple Metrics

One of the biggest bug-a-boos associated with modern sales leaderboards - the tendency to showcase the same reps every time. When it comes to displaying sales KPIs, the more metrics you showcase, the more opportunities for recognition you give your sales force.

The average sales team is tracking a high-number of metrics. To see a few examples, read our Salesforce KPI Report. Returning to our first best practice, it's best to sync your sales leaderboards to your CRM. See how West Corporation syncs Ambition to PeopleSoft to broadcast multiple metrics on their call center office TVs below.

#4. Create Role-Based Sales Leaderboards

A good way to segment your leaderboards is by role or by office location. The more apples-to-apples you can make your leaderboard, the more strongly it registers with your sales team.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Your reps are looking to battle it out with people they know - or - as a unit against a different branch or team. Segmenting leaderboards to account for this reality makes buy-in twice as strong among your team.

#5. Create Compelling Rewards and Incentives

In case you missed last week's coverage of the 7 most epic sales incentives our clients ran, remember this rule of thumb: every elite sales leaderboard has an epic incentive attached to its final outcome.

Whether you're buying your reps billboards, luxury cruises, or epic nights on the town, the goal is to be as thoughtful as possible. While we're not saying you should apply the same level of rigor as you would a 10-year anniversary gift ... quality incentives can help boost the price point of your next anniversary gift. #justsaying

#6. Don't Stigmatize Low Performers

Important best practice: sales leaderboards are not your opportunity to call out low-performing reps. The old adage - praise in public; criticize in private - holds true here.

For supporting evidence, here's an excerpt from Harvard Business Review's analysis of a televised sales contest Ambition client Clayton Homes ran on Ambition: "The league also struck a balance between shaming the worst performers and celebrating the best. TVs publicly displayed the top scores and played individuals’ theme songs when people reached milestones. But there was no public view of the worst performers’ scores. Those were visible only within teams, so members could support those who were struggling."

#7. Create Real-Time Updates and Alerts

Look at the popularity of NFL RedZone. People love skipping straight to the most exciting parts of competition. That goes for sales contests as well.

If a lead changes hands in your sales contest - announce it in timely fashion. If there's a neck-and-neck race in your SPIF with 2 minutes to go, announce it in timely fashion. Ambition clients love using our platform for these purposes - it's a common sense way to add hype and intrigue to your sales leaderboard.

#8. Create Compelling Visual Backgrounds

Unless you're the second-coming of Picasso who has somehow wandered into a sales leadership role (if this is you, God help you), then your whiteboard illustrations of trophies, et cetera, aren't doing your sales contest the justice it deserves.

Ambition clients use our platform to create compelling TV slides showcasing different leaderboards - and splice in things like motivational quotes, weather alerts, employee recognition, and so forth. On a budget? Print out a massive bracket, picture of your incentive, or somethign similar to add visual oomph to the competition.

#9. Create Sharabele, Time-Sensitive Leaderboards

Looking to create more opportunities for recognition? Create leaderboards with different time intervals. For example: transactional sales teams can create Closed Won leaderboards for the day, week, month and year-to-date.

For a great example of this practice in action (and to see how to use sales leaderboards across different offices) watch our client walkthrough with AMX Logistics General Manager Jared Moore.

#10. Create Moneyball Metric Leaderboards

Activity leaderboards: great. Objective leaderboards: great. Revenue leaderboards: love it. The final frontier we recommend: a moneyball metric leaderboard, tracking the leaders in an efficiency metric such as opportunity-closed won ratio.

There's a reason the MLB awards the batting title each season to the player with the highest batting average. Give your reps something similar.

Sales Leaders, HR Professionals, and C-Level Executives use Ambition
to recognize, motivate, and develop employees into more engaged and
productive versions of themselves. Funded by Google,
used by the Fortune 500, endorsed by the Harvard Business Review.

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